Sussex Archaeological Collections Relating to the History and Antiquities of the County Volume 21 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1869 Excerpt: ... their Lords' consent being required, the same process as that which he had pursued with regard to his larger tract, by carving out still smaller portions to be held of them, as of their mansion, and by like services to those which they themselves rendered. Both the above processes were called sub-infeudations. Thus sub-manors were multiplied, until each superior Lord in the chain found himself deprived of the escheats, wardships, and marriages, which were due to him.'23 This led to the passing in 1290 of the Statute,24 called from its two first words, Quia Emptores, whereby all further sub-infeudations were prohibited: whence its follows that a manor existing at the present day must have existed as early as that date. I wish I might confine myself to the subject of manors only, but in conscience I cannot. The position of the Lord of a Manor depends so much on its relation to the larger territorial divisions of a county, that I must say a few words about them, and at least invite the attention of others to their fuller discussion hereafter. County histories have, I think, erred much in shirking these questions. What for example is an 'Honor', a 'Barony, ' a 'Hundred, ' or a 'Lordship.' In Sussex we have another difficulty--the 'Rape.' To begin with the largest, what is a Rape? or rather, for Mr. Lower explains at least its etymology, TM what did a grant of it carry: as, for example, when King John ordered the Bishop of Winton--the earliest record I find of the grant of the Rape of Hastings--to give seisin of it to Peter of Savoy?26 Was the grant of the Rape by the Conqueror to the Earl of Eu (of which no record exists, ) a grant to him of the fee simple of every acre in it (though according to Mr. Horsfield27 Battle Abbey owned some portion of it), displacing a...